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(11) | EP 1 232 943 A3 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Coupled aircraft rotor system |
| (57) An aircraft with a tilt rotor assembly comprising a craft body, a plurality of rotor
blades which are subject to three modes of flight operation, a tilting mast coupling
the plurality of rotor blades to the craft body and for selectively moving the plurality
of rotor blades between the three modes of flight operation, a hub coupling the plurality
of rotor blades to the tilting mast in a manner which transfers torque and thrust
while allowing tilting of a rotor thrust vector, a main swashplate for tilting in
response to operator input to control the direction of the rotor thrust vector, a
plurality of pitch horns, each mechanically coupled to a particular one of the plurality
of rotor blades and to the main swashplate, for communicating swashplate input to
each of the plurality of rotor blades, a plurality of links coupling the main swashplate
to the plurality of pitch horns, wherein each of the plurality of pitch horns is mechanically
coupled to a particular one of the plurality of rotor blades by one of the plurality
of links in a particular position which yields a delta-3 value which is not optimum,
and a feedback swashplate and cooperating feedback links for receiving disk tilting
input from the plurality of rotor blades during flight, and for supplying a mechanical
input to the main swashplate to compensate for the less than optimum delta-3 coupling
between the plurality of pitch horns and the plurality of links. The three modes of
flight include: (1) an airplane mode of flight with the plurality of rotor blades
in a rotor disk position which is substantially transverse to the craft body; (2)
a helicopter mode of flight with the plurality of rotor blades in a rotor disk position
substantially parallel to the craft body with direction of flight being controlled
by a rotor thrust vector; and (3) a transition mode of flight with the plurality of
rotor blades moving between the rotor disk positions associated with the airplane
mode of flight and the helicopter mode of flight. |